Hi, my name's Jaraska, and I'm a Big Geek Nerd

[Jaraska]

The short story is - I've always been overweight, and the older I get, the more I weigh.

 

In my teens, I was 220 and rising.  At 30 (the weight I am now) I've topped out at 430.  I gained a lot of weight when I had medical problems that required me to take steroids (gaining 30lbs in a month, twice).  I did Weight Watchers, gained it back.  My husband and I are doing low carb now, and have seen some improvement, like 20lbs in a month, and then we moved, I changed jobs, he lost his, etc. etc. etc.  The excuses started, we were never home, constantly in the car, exhausted and it was easier to order something delivered or drive through during a commute.

 

So, now we're settled in our new place.  We both have stable jobs, but work different shifts (I work normal 8 - 5, he works 6pm - 4am).  We are starting the whole cooking on the weekends when we're both home, and then having plenty of low carb food for the week.  Spaghetti squash has become like crack to us, and the check out guy at the grocery store always teases us when we go through with 10 at a time.

 

Now, as for the geek side of me, I work in IT, Support Specialist, learning coding, though I have more of a "Why is it not working?  Semi-colon?  What do you mean declare a variable?  I told it to do something, why isn't it working?  Well teach it my screwed up version of English then!" attitude towards it.  Also take free college courses online all the time, as IT is what I do, but being a student is my passion.  I'm also a PC gamer.  Skyrim, WoW, Rift...  MMO's and RPG's get me going.  MMO's where I'm not forced to group and can instead just use it to socialize?  Gold!  ....how I miss MUDs....

 

So, the sorta question-y part.  We have a Bowflex PR1000.  We got this for several reasons.  First, my weight has caused mobility issues.  I can walk, I can move around, I can carry things, but I also have sore joints, back problems, the usual.  My husband has nerve damage in a shoulder and uses it to build up strength in his arms without the stress of free weights.

 

My problem is, I can't find any good workouts for someone of my size.  I don't even know if I'm doing them right.  I try to follow the directions, but I got some extra cushion in the areas where that skinny guy in the pictures doesn't.  And I'm completely lost on the whole muscle groups, and do this and not that, and pretty much the entire idea of weight training confuses me.  If anyone has pointers, please?!

 

In conclusion, Hi!  How are you?  Help!  Happy to be here!

[Fenshire]

Welcome to the Rebellion, Jaraska!

 

I'm not sure if I'm the most qualified person in the world to help...  I've only been fighting the good fight for a little over three months now.  However, I started as a rather obese dude at 5'6" and 323lbs...  I am certainly no stranger to not being able to work out on some machines due to size.

 

I'm not terribly familiar with Bowflex, but I assume you can perform most exercises on it.  I recommend doing compound exercises (squat, bench press, rows, overhead press, deadlift, curls, and calf raises).  Just the very nature of each of those exercises will help to build up multiple muscles and form a good foundation that you can later build on.  Also, squats and deadlifts (using light weights in the beginning!!) seem like they'd be very good for building up strength in your joints.

 

Strength training is awesome.  It'll turn your muscles into calorie-burning factories and you'll see weight begin to really melt off. 

 

As is often recommended on this site, diet really is about 80% of the battle though.  My diet is somewhat paleo.  You might want to look into that!  It seems to work for many of the folks on here.  I may even switch over if my current diet ceases to work for me.

 

As for learning the different exercises, YouTube has been immensely useful for me.  Also, I belong to a gym so it's handy to have people around that I can ask for help if I need it.  You may want to consider joining a gym.  I know as a big person gyms can be terrifying...  but I can say that I have never been insulted or teased or looked down upon while there.  People generally seem very pleased that I'm making a change.  Now that I've been there for a few months, I've gotten to know other folks at the gym, and I feel like I have a huge crowd of supporters cheering me on. 

 

Welcome again!  I hope this helps somewhat!

 

~Kris

[alienjenn]

 

So, the sorta question-y part.  We have a Bowflex PR1000.  We got this for several reasons.  First, my weight has caused mobility issues.  I can walk, I can move around, I can carry things, but I also have sore joints, back problems, the usual.  My husband has nerve damage in a shoulder and uses it to build up strength in his arms without the stress of free weights.

 

My problem is, I can't find any good workouts for someone of my size.  I don't even know if I'm doing them right.  I try to follow the directions, but I got some extra cushion in the areas where that skinny guy in the pictures doesn't.  And I'm completely lost on the whole muscle groups, and do this and not that, and pretty much the entire idea of weight training confuses me.  If anyone has pointers, please?!

 

In conclusion, Hi!  How are you?  Help!  Happy to be here!

First... welcome to the rebellion!

Second... I wouldn't worry too much about the guy in the pictures you don't have to move perfectly... you just have to move... I'm not sure what exercises you're talking about but we have a section where you can upload a form check video and have people critique your form if you think you might be doing it wrong...

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